


Storybook

by VeryImportantDemon



Series: Hamilton AUs [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Aaron owns a bookstore, Alexander is a lawyer, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Bookstore AU, Drabbles, Happily Ever After, He's also a teacher, M/M, Very short sleep deprived drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 03:43:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11751336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryImportantDemon/pseuds/VeryImportantDemon
Summary: Aaron really likes books. He really likes Alexander Hamilton, too.





	Storybook

**Author's Note:**

> ???? What is this no one will ever know

Aaron really likes books. Perhaps this is why he decides to work at a bookstore as soon as he is discharged from the military. He likes books and they calm him down. That helps a lot. He gets to spend his whole day surrounded by the smell of used books, reshelving and restocking and reading. It's a peaceful existence. He can sink into another world that isn't as lonely as this one, and sometimes when he turns the pages he's so lost he doesn't notice that his fingers are made of metal.

  
He's reading one day, tucked away behind the counter, when a man bursts through the door. His long brown hair is soaking wet and pulled up into a bun either so much hair falling out of it that it can hardly be called a bun anymore. He's dripping water all over Aaron's clean floors, throwing the door open so hard Aaron's little gold bell almost pops off the hinges. He makes so much racket, stomping and splashing with the noise of thunder claps behind him, that Aaron looks up from his book - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - to squint slightly.  
The man smiles cheerfully at him anyway, seemingly not realizing the mess he's making. "Close the door, please," he says mildly, and he looks back down at his book, turning the page.

  
The loud stranger pulls the door shut and dries the bottoms of his boots before he approaches the counter. "Where's your historical nonfiction?" he asks, and Aaron points without looking up. He loses himself in the novel again, tearing through it. It resonates with him, and proves to be a very good read. He gets so lost in it that he forgets about the loud stranger until he hears footsteps and a few books plop down on the counter top. He slides his bookmark in and sets the novel aside before he begins examining the purchases. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow and an old economics textbook Aaron himself used in college.

  
"Will that be all?" Aaron asks, looking up. The stranger is still smiling. "Yeah, that's it," he said. Aaron checks the price tags on the books as he bags them and makes sure he's adding correctly. As he works, doing the math in his head, the stranger speaks. "Afghanistan or Iraq?" he asks. Aaron stops, his cool metal prosthetic stilling on the economics text. "What?" he asks. The stranger shrugs. "I noticed your Sherlock Holmes display in the window. And your hand. Are you a fan of the show? I thought it was a good reference... Or maybe I just shoved my foot in my mouth again."

  
The stranger didn't stop to take a breath once, and Aaron's not sure how he feels about that. He leaves the books on the counter before he pushes his sleeve up, revealing a prosthetic arm up to his elbow. "Not just a hand," he says. "And... Afghanistan." The stranger smiles. "Nice," he says. He pushes up his own sleeve - though his t-shirt has shorter ones - and reveals a tattoo on his right shoulder. The ink sprawls across his whole shoulder and reaches out onto his back, the army logo with a number emblazoned below it. He drops his sleeve. "Maybe you'll tell me your story some day, Watson?" he asks, handing Aaron money. Aaron laughs. "I'm more of a Sherlock Holmes type," he says. The stranger winks at him and is out the door in moments, leaving Aaron with a tingly feeling in his chest, a handful of change, and the slightly depressing thought that he'll never see this stranger again.

  
He returns to his shop the next day and the next day and the next day. With each day, Aaron loses hope that the mysterious stranger will return. He is reading again, sitting at the counter, when the man returns. He's so quiet that Aaron doesn't even hear the bell chime. "Boo," he says, and Aaron flinches and drops his book. "Fuck," he says, and the stranger laughs. "Sorry shot that," he said. "I brought you coffee to apologize for tracking water everywhere the other day. Hell of a storm, huh?" He brandishes a cup in Aaron's direction. "You look like a pumpkin spice latte guy, but I'll trade you if I'm wrong." Aaron smiles faintly, taking the cup. "Perhaps I ought to get a name?" he asks. "You're not supposed to drink things strangers give you. But if I have a name, we aren't strangers." The stranger laughs, and Aaron studies his face. He looks almost exactly the same as a few days prior, but his hair is in a much better bun. "Alexander Hamilton," he says, sticking his hand out. "Aaron Burr," Aaron says, shakes Alexander's with his prosthetic. Alexander, to his credit, does not flinch. Aaron likes that about him.

  
Alexander comes into the shop a lot. Aaron learns that he served under General George Washington. He learns that he idolized Aaron Burr, the strategist he always aspired to be, and this makes Aaron blush. He learns how even the ever-moving and ever-talking Alexander goes completely quiet when Aaron tells a story. He learns that Alexander takes his coffee with far too much sugar. He learns that he loves reading about history, that he's a lawyer-slash-economics professor. Every time he visits, he brings Aaron coffee. Sometimes, however, he brings him books, too. Just books he thinks Aaron might like. Aaron loves every one of them, but even if he didn't, he wouldn't say so.

  
Alexander only lasts a few weeks before he asks Aaron out. Aaron's blushing heavily again, but he manages to stammer out a yes. They got out for drinks. When they get drunk, they stumble back into Aaron's bookstore, collapsed in a heap on top of each other in the poetry section, reading each other anything and everything.

  
It is there that they celebrate Aaron's birthday, doing the same thing. It is there that Alexander asks Aaron to marry him. It is there that Aaron says yes. It is there that Aaron and Alexander figure out they've been approved to adopt. It's there that they discover that George Washington has won the presidency and they will both be offered jobs in the administration. It is there that Aaron realizes he must sell his beloved store. 

Aaron lingers in the doorway the last time he locks the door. The shelves are cleaned out completely, nothing left in the store but memories. There aren't even any books. Aaron's either sold them or packed them away into boxes. "Are you going to miss it?" Alexander asks, squeezing his shoulder. "A little," Aaron says truthfully. "But not much. I can read anywhere. It has good memories, sure, but I'm taking those with me, too." Alexander smiles and leans down to kiss Aaron on the cheek.

  
They walk down the street hand in hand and it is a perfect storybook ending.


End file.
